Valencia kicks off pre-season testing, Vettel on top

Defending Formula One World Champion Sebastian Vettel topped the timing
sheets on the opening day of pre-season testing at Circuit Ricardo Tormo in
Valencia, Spain. The times are unofficial with teams breaking in their new
cars while others have...

Defending Formula One World Champion Sebastian Vettel topped the timing
sheets on the opening day of pre-season testing at Circuit Ricardo Tormo in
Valencia, Spain. The times are unofficial with teams breaking in their new
cars while others have are using their 2010-spec cars with modifications.

Sebastian Vettel, Red Bull Racing, RB7.

Photo by xpb.cc.

With Team Lotus as the only exception (they start their testing tomorrow),
all teams were on track with the usual suspects - Red Bull, Ferrari and
McLaren setting the competitive times.

"It was good today and I felt comfortable in the car, I enjoyed it," smiled
Vettel. "It was day one for most of us and there's a long way to go with
testing ahead of the season and a very long racing season after that - with
20 races - so things can change! We've only made the first step today, but
we had a reliable day and can be very proud of what we have achieved so
far."

With most teams spending the first part of the session making
initial checks on the cars, it wasn't until the afternoon session
that the times started to come down. Vettel was the first to dip
under the 1m14s barrier and he was joined later on by Force India
test driver Nico Hulkenberg who drove the first part of the day
before handing over to Paul di Resta in the afternoon. Running an
interim MP4/25, Gary Paffett impressed in third and with fellow
Brit di Resta setting a time 0.5s of his team mate, both demoted
Fernando Alonso and Ferrari to 5th.

The day was brought to a slightly premature end when the Ferrari stopped out
on the circuit and the session was red-flagged. Alonso managed to restart
the car and cruise round to the pits but the allocated session time had
expired moments before. Turning 68 laps in total, Sauber's Kamui Kobayashi
ended 6th, just over 0.4s ahead of an impressive Jerome d'Ambrosio in the
Virgin-Cosworth who completed 71 laps.

Unsurprisingly, the 2010 cars were relatively trouble free and
competitive but the same could not be said for some of the new
machinery.

Nico Rosberg, Mercedes GP F1 Team, MGP W02.

Photo by xpb.cc.

Stopping on the main straight, Nico Rosberg was the first casualty
of the day - his Mercedes struck down with a hydraulic leak after
only 9 laps. Team mate Michael Schumacher ran the car in the
afternoon and though only registering 15 laps, set 9th fastest
lap, just behind a slow starting Vitaly Petrov in the Lotus Renault*. The
Russian completed a mere 6 laps before emerging later in the day
running a total of 22 laps - complete with a new and radical
exhaust system which exists at the front of the sidepods.

Widespread check being the order of the day for Torro Rosso, Jaime
Algersuari took a long break from being on track, eventually
setting a time of 1m17.214s, good enough for 10th.

KERS made it's return to F1 though Williams experienced issues
with theirs but Rubens Barrichello - entering his 19th season,
took 11th in the Cosworth powered FW33 with a 1m17.335s.
Running the team's 2010 car, Narin Karthikeyan marked his return
to action completing 45 laps for HRT and a best of 1m18.020s and
12th in the standings.

*Lotus Renualt - Name of team is still in dispute while the court battle with Team Lotus is on hold.